Regis Prograis and Mario Barrios discussing possible fight

Former 140-pound titlist Regis Prograis is looking to get himself back into the title mix in the division, and while Josh Taylor and Jose Ramirez control the four major titles and appear on an undisputed collision course with both being promoted by Top Rank, Prograis is looking at another target to force the issue.

That would be WBA secondary “world” titleholder Mario Barrios, the undefeated fighter from San Antonio. Prograis (25-1, 21 KO) and Barrios (26-0, 17 KO) both last fought on Oct. 31 at the Alamodome, part of the Davis-Santa Cruz pay-per-view card from PBC and Showtime, and having them on the same bill probably was no accident, as those things usually aren’t even if there’s no big build-up ahead of time.

The 31-year-old Prograis stopped Juan Heraldez in three, while the 25-year-old Barrios knocked out Ryan Karl in the sixth round.

“Rougarou” Tweeted yesterday evening that he’d heard some talk about the fight, but that Barrios might be hesitating now:

“El Azteca,” as you might expect, said that’s not the case. He did express some doubts about Prograis being able to make 140 anymore, as Prograis did miss weight for his fight with Heraldez:

Prograis came back saying he’d make weight, which, you know, of course he would, and reiterating that he wants the fight:

Prograis is right there among the top 140-pound fighters still. His loss to Taylor in Oct. 2019 was a great fight, highly competitive, and he’s said many times he feels if it had been in the U.S., he probably would have gotten the decision. He might not be wrong about that, though the outcome may have been a bit more controversial that way.

Barrios is a good young fighter, looks to keep improving, and he passed a solid test in 2019 when he faced Baty Akhmedov. Personally, I thought Akhmedov had a decent argument for the win in that fight, even though Barrios dropped him twice, but it however you scored a debatable outcome, Barrios proved he can get through 12 tough rounds, and he’s looked to get better off of that, too.

Prograis is an established top talent at the weight, Barrios wants to become one. The easiest way to become one is to beat one. To me, this is a hell of a good fight to make, and neither of them are going to be getting anything significantly better, most likely. The only fight I can think of off the top of my head, with Taylor and Ramirez out of this equation for now, that would be notably better than this matchup might be Prograis fighting Jose Zepeda.

Twitter interactions don’t mean the world, but often where there’s smoke there’s fire in these situations, and there’s nothing politically or whatever that would block this from happening. The fact that both of them show some interest is a good sign if far from a guarantee.